How to make fantastic smell in your home? It is easier than you think.
Kids, pets, and the hullabaloo of each day make your life interesting and wonderful. They can also leave unpleasant odors lingering around the house, though. With a few simple DIY projects, you can harness your favorite scents and spread them through your home.
#1 Create a Homemade Air Freshener
The air fresheners you buy at the store contain a lot of chemicals you shouldn’t breathe, and they’re not always available in the scents you prefer. Instead, create your own air freshener with just a few ingredients, and gain total control over how they smell. All you have to do is mix about a cup of water, a few drops of your favorite essential oils, and about a tablespoon of either baking soda, rubbing alcohol, or vanilla extract. You can tweak the ratios of liquids in the recipe until you find a recipe that works perfectly for you.
#2 Make an Essential Oil Diffuser
To make a reed diffuser, you use the same ingredients you used to create air freshener, just in different ratios. You need the same amount of water and alcohol, and between four to five times as much essential oil. Make sure the water is hot when you create the mixture so everything combines well. Then just put it in a jar with some reeds, and enjoy the scent as it wafts through your house.
#3 Change Your Air Conditioner’s Air Filters
This DIY project might not be as exciting or crafty as the others on this list, but changing the air conditioner’s air filter will have your home smelling better quickly. Dust, debris, and other detritus build up in your home’s air filter, which means it needs to be changed about once every two months. Otherwise, that gunk gets blown back into your home, causing musty or mildewy smells.
All you have to do is buy the same HVAC filter that you already had in your system. Remove the old filter, and insert the new one for fresher smelling air.
#4 Mix Your Own Potpourri
Potpourri is a natural solution to making the house smell great, and it’s wonderfully versatile. Potpourri looks lovely in vases and jars set out as accent pieces. You can put it in sachets and stick those in your dresser drawers, beneath pillows, or in the bathroom for a nice, subtle scent.
To make your own potpourri, you just need to pick up a few of your favorite flowers and a fixing agent. The fixing agent keeps the scents in the flowers while you’re drying them, and it’s usually something like oak moss or powdered orris root. Dry the flower petals outside in the sun, mix them with the fixing agent and some essential oil, and then place them in a paper bag for a few weeks so everything can season.
These projects are easy to do, and they give you total control over how scented your home becomes. Many of them make fun family projects, too. Instead of smelling wet dog when you walk into your foyer, enjoy natural scents of mint, lavender, or rose.
Author BIO
Ashley Carter is a full time student writing her way through college. When she’s not writing she enjoys hiking and any other outdoor activity imaginable.
When I was staying at the Ritz in Chicago, I LOVED how the whole hotel smelled – they told me they put their signature scent in their air system so it blows throughout the whole place! Genius.
Hello Lindsay,
Thanks for stopping by.
A smelling hotel? What a great idea! I hope you had great days in the Ritz.
Have a nice day.
Do you make the homemade air freshener in a spray bottle? And just spray it around when you use it?
Hi Nikki — Yes, I typically use recycled spray bottles so that I can spruce up different areas of the home. But, you could also create a stationary air freshener using a mason jar or other glass container.
Great tips, I especially love the essential oil diffuser idea!
Love these ideas! I am always on the lookout for easy DIY’s!
I’ve always wanted to try making my own potpourri! It has been on my DIY list for a while 🙂
I think if I put out a vase of potpourri, my boyfriend would tease me to no end. I like option 1 🙂
With a little one I have been weary of using candles. These are all great ideas though I will have to try!
Thanks for the ideas! I have been thinking about mixing my own popori for awhile now. I may have to try your suggestions.